THIS SITE IS DEVOTED TO THE OTTAWA FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT

"Youth should be radical. Youth should demand change in the world. Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on. But the old orders should not be moved easily -- certainly not at the mere whim or behest of youth. There must be clash and if youth hasn't enough force or fervor to produce the clash the world grows stale and stagnant and sour in decay."

-William Allen White

THE NEWS FLOW

Oct. 20, 2009. Documents obtained by the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. Email exchanges between President Allan Rock
and publisher of the Ottawa Citizen Jim Orban
reveal how the University of Ottawa controls the media.

Friday, January 23, 2009

39 comments:

Reserving my judgement on the issue, I do find it interesting that there's always people who HAPPEN to be carrying video cameras when they're around Marc Kelly/Denis Rancourt. I don't know about you, but none of my friends who go to uOttawa own a video camera that they just carry around with them casually. I want to say it all seems kind of staged, but that's overstepping it a little, since it could just be the fact that if people know one of those two is on campus for any reason, some drama is going to go down. Case and point.

This is so clearly staged, it disgusts me. I don't know the circumstances, but why the hell else would the video camera be turned on as the police come in.

Sounds like the University maybe asked these two assholes not to be on campus, and they ignored it. I have no sympathy. Regardless of the "legality", this kid and this "professor" are constantly involved in illegal disturbances of the peace and mischief.

If Marc/Rancourt was issued a Ticket for trespassing under the TPA then the university has the right to arrest him each time they enters that property (listed on the TPA ticket). "False pretenses?" What's false about someone breaching the conditions?

If they were not issued a ticket and/or U of O cannot produce the legal document (as it is required to do so) then that is not right. Also, why in the world would you try to argue with the OPS? They are not there to pass judgement on the situation. Should you have legal documents that allow you to be present than you needto present them during your hearing. Also I would suggest that if they detain you without charrging you multiple times that is also unjust but that is another story.

On the other side. If U of O has not issued a TPA ticket than they probably should; however I assume it would be difficult at this stage of the game. Anyways goodluck. Not sure what the end game plan you have is but yu need to strategize a bit more if you hope to achieve an end goal.

Denis Rancourt and Marc Kelly are terrorists, disrupting the university and its classes.

If you got fired from your job (BOTH WERE DISMISSED FOR ACCEPTABLE REASONS), you don't keep coming back and disrupting shit. You'll get escorted off the property and/or arrested, just like these two clowns.

The fact that one random student is privy to my personal contact information makes me sick. Get your message across through another medium and stop sending out mass e-mails. I have a lot of problems with U of O as well but unfortunately I don't know the right people or have the right tools to access every student's e-mail address to tell them about it. You want to talk about abuses of power?

I also find that hilarious that Rancourt denies climate change. Let me guess, it's a government conspiracy and fear tactic right? Tell that to the drowning polar bears.

So I heard today upon responding to the most recent mass email that apparently MY HOME email address was purchased by whomever is sending this crap from the U of O marketing department. That floors me. I don't care about these stupid shenanigans and I really don't want to hear it anymore. Stop cluttering my inbox and wasting my time. On a side note, if you reply to the email and let them have it that you don't want them, they "take you off the list" if that helps.

Mr. Kelly, I watched your videos Vimeo.com. You come off as rude, ignorant, and a douchebag. In your confrontations with Mr. Rock, he has been incredibly well-tempered and well-spoken. -You barge into his office without an appointment. You badger him constantly. You won't leave. You're surprised he has you kicked out?-He refuses to comment on a trial that is ongoing, because it would not be professional. This is common sense, yet it outrages you.-You interrupt him during a Senate meeting and asks you to wait your turn. You really think this means "The administration is trying to control when you speak"? REALLY?!

It's time to calm down and put your efforts to better use, and fight for more legitimate causes.

Marc Kelly needs a good dose of humility. Where did he get this inflated ego from? I read his paper and it had less to do with physics than anything else in print. And why does he think that 36,000+ people will just stop in their tracks everytime he has a beef and feel sympathy for him over the most trivial matters? I'm just tired of hearing about this loser. Maybe Mr. Kelly just hasn't heard these these two words enough "Grow up" or these four words enough "Grow the fuck up".

The one and only reason this case has gotten so much attention is because of the several spam e-mails that have been sent out. Anyways, 99% of that attention is negative. People either disagree with the whole ordeal or simply do not care.

How can anyone take Rancourt and Kelly seriously when they present their information with such total disregard for the facts? Kelly was not arrested for 'teaching'. He is not qualified to teach. He has not even shown himself to be capable of earning an undergraduate degree. He is a drop-out, pure and simple.

Despite all of the smoke and mirrors around this issue it is really very simple. Kelly is a sheep. A silly, misguided sheep who is being manipulated by Rancourt to satisfy his own ego.

Somewhere along the way Rancourt went off the rails and he is taking a bunch of impressionable youngsters along with him. Rancourt is not qualified to comment on Global Warming, Pedagogy, Politics, or any of the other subject areas in which he describes himself as an 'expert'. In his arrogance he assumes that he is qualified because he says he is. What silliness.

If you want to chart a new course in education where there are no grades, no assignments, no requirements, etc. then off you go Rancourt. Form your own University, no one is stopping you. Just don't expect the degrees to be recognized or the institution to be accredited, but then these things don't matter to you do they?

Let's see how many students you attract and how willing they are to invest 4-8 years of their life to emerge with nothing other than a talent for looking stupid and getting arrested.

Ah, finally we veer into true raving luncay (with your Invitation email of Jan 30th). I suppose tomorrow we will see a new slew of videos of you being "unlawfully" removed by the police yet again from private property that you are not allowed to be on outside of class times. If you want to speak to students in peace, why not rent a venue off-campus and see how many show up? At least the police will have no reason to interfere with your rantings. As for your "high security research to defend against enemy infiltration of military communication networks".. I almost wet my pants reading that one. It reminded me very strongly of another compulsive liar I once knew, who was in the military (and claimed to be an agent of CSIS)It was so amusing I won't even complain about your spamming for once. I know it's sad that X-Files is no longer around to help you with insane conspiracy theories, but try to be more original than simple-minded pseudo-Marxist/Orwellian bullshit, please. As for your self-appointed martyrdom/mission to save the poor unenlightened masses (i.e. your fellow students, many of whom are much more learned in the field of education than you) "from the torments of graded assignments, multiple-choice examinations and mindless regurgitation", perhaps you should actually read about the alternative systems, the history of the university pedagogy and methodology, and realize that it is an ongoing dialogue, not some "Big Brother" conspiracy. I've spent 13 years in post-secondary work, as student and instructor, and the fact that the system is flawed and continually undergoing revision does not indicate that students are being brainwashed. The communities are made up of dedicated people doing the best they can to impart and analyze vast amounts of information in short periods of time in some semblance of an organized fashion. Only an utterly naive little twit could imagine that to be an easy task, or decide that the ultimate goal of a university is simple indoctrination. Your Messianic fantasies of "sav[ing] the student population from the torments of grades and examinations" is nothing but a pathetic attempt to mask your own sense of failure and frustration regarding your own academic work. If you wanted to gather personal knowledge or even expertise in ANY field without suffering the tyranny of grades, you could freely do so. Nobody forced you to enter the post-secondary system; many people become well-known in their fields and even publish books with no formal training. Please, go be one of them. You have no place in a university.

Now Marc Kelly is running for President of the Student Federation? I thought he was only allowed on campus when he had a specific academic reason- how in hell would he meet the duties of that position with those restrictions? Also, his promises go so far beyond what the SFUO could (or should be able to) do in terms of changing marking systems etc, as to sound.. well, out of touch with all reality, as usual. So Kelly, your idea of "classroom democracy" is that the instructor- who has spent years, perhaps decades, studying the subject and teaching it, designing and testing s syllabus that is functional and fair- should get one vote, and the 30-100 students, who have spent almost no time with the subject and have only their own desires and self-interest to consider- should each get one? And that the instructor should be forced to come up with individual and unique ways of grading every single student, somehow keeping the marking sytem fair between those who write exams, those who chose "group presentations", "creative essays" and the rest? Does it occur to you that full-time profs teach three courses a semester while conducting ongoing research, professional development, and extensive administrative duties? That they may be responsible for evaluating close to 400 students a term? Do you really think your approach is workable under these conditions? Do you really think it will ensure the most reliable dissemination of information and learning? Or are you an ignorant little fuckhead who has no conception of what he's proposing?

Marc Kelly is a ticking time bomb. He wants police to be banned from campus. See his website. Who would want that unless planning a crime? This guy is a Columbine waiting to happen. Everyone hates him, he is doing poorly in school, and has wild anarchist views. The kid needs help, but he also needs to stay the hell away from our campus. Please join me in writing the administration. Something needs to be done about this zealot and his delusional followers that are tarnishing the reputation of our university.

The fact that somebody like Marc Kelly is being met with this kind of response may mean the current system of post-secondary education has established itself and its policies very securely within our culture. I think this suggests a kind of maturity in the scholastic sector. It's probably a good thing that Ottawa U is resistant to frequent and radical shifts in policy. Hopefully, though, it hasn't settled so much that it has become stagnant.

THE UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA'S MISSION, OBJECTIVES, GOALS, VISION, AND VALUES

ALLAN ROCK, PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY

Allan Rock decides who speaks.

THOUGHTS ON STUDENT OPPRESSION...

"The oppressor is solidary with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealth with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor -- when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love. True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love, in its existentiality, in its praxis. To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce."